The Source

Imbecilic Desires: Now, at the conclusion of our discussion last week, you referred to the soul of America. And I know how much you hate discussing your politics, but how religious are you?

Superman: My parents were pretty religious, my mom in particular, and they raised me in a good Christian tradition. While there are still definitely aspects of that upbringing in my moral universe, I think it would be limiting to say my worldview is entirely Christian.

ID: What happened?

S: In part, I learned I was an alien. Christianity doesn't specifically deny the existence of extraterrestrials, but it also makes no place for them, either. And I've seen other worlds, thousands of other species, comprising probably a hundred billion other life forms. And each and every one of them has their own unique religious practices. Including Krypton.

But I remember the first time I actually doubted Christianity. One of the boys in my Sunday School class, and I wouldn’t have even been a teenager yet, I don’t think, and he was maybe a year or two older, but he asked about people in Asia, and Africa, who maybe weren’t given the chance to join the Christian church. Our teacher told us, in a nut shell, that everyone got at least one chance to accept God, even if only in a single moment.

And my problem with that answer is it isn’t fair. Here I was, fairly steeped in this “chosen” religion, when there were people, not just in Asia and Africa, but so many others, like pre-Christians who weren’t Jewish who, regardless of their moral caliber or location, were being given only a fleeting shot at salvation. And that was something my young mind had trouble wrapping around, the idea of a loving but unfair God.

And it came into starker relief a few years later. When I discovered my lineage, I discovered a religious heritage I'd never known. At first, I really felt the burden of being the last Kryptonian, and I went out of my way to absorb as much of the culture as I possibly could, including the monotheistic religion of Krypton, whose God is named Rao. And I studied well, religiously, and what I found was that I couldn't figure out which religion felt right, which of my fathers' religions was mine- and I think it weakened my conviction for both.

ID: So it has nothing to do with Diana, then?

S: Oh, with her um, origins, as it were? No, I’d formed most of my religious opinions years before I ever met Diana.

ID: But you believe the claim that she was sculpted from clay by the gods?

S: You know that lasso of truth? It’s no lie, what they say it can do. And she’s constantly in contact with it. Sometimes I think it affects Diana’s tact, but by and large, I’ve never known a more honest person. And when she tells me she knows the Greek gods, and that she was molded from clay by them- I believe her.

ID: And actually, looking at the way she fills out the costume, I think I can believe she was sculpted by the gods.

S: Will you ever tire of classing up this interview?

ID: Nope. But your reticence about Christianity, does that indicate a lack of faith in something, or simply in the specific Christian dogmas?

S: I don’t think it’s necessarily a lack of faith- it’s just a lack of fit. Like, I was unpacking some stuff from my parents’ attic that they’d been storing since I got out of college and got my first tiny apartment in Metropolis, and I found a pair of my old jeans. I didn’t feel like I’d gotten any bigger- and I certainly didn’t feel like I’d gotten any wider, but the jeans just weren't comfortable anymore. So I stopped using them (God, I hope no one finds that wildly offensive).

But honestly I kind of have to believe in a higher organization of some kind, probably even in some kind of big “G” God. I mean, I personally know an angel- Zauriel- who’s done a lot of work with us over the years, including organizing a large contingent of angels to stabilize world conflict during the Mageddon crisis. Mageddon himself was a weapon used by the warring Old Gods, according to the religious beliefs of New Genesis, whose inhabitants are called the New Gods.

Of course, the biggest and probably scariest argument for a God is the Spectre. If there’s anyone who wields more power than me, if there’s anyone who speaks convincingly of a heavenly authority- specifically of being the embodiment of the Wrath of God- it’s him. I’ve always been a bit uneasy about the Old Testament description of God, but the Spectre makes me think there might be something to that, after all.

And of course, Linda Danvers, who’s a devout Methodist and for a time was Supergirl, became an Earth-born angel. Then there’s the long list of people I know who’ve died only to later return to life, and a few of them, like Ollie, actually spent some time in Heaven. Bruce can probably hide behind circular reasoning and long explanations, but to me it seems obvious that there’s more out there than what even I can see.

ID: Okay, you believe in God, so what exactly do you take issue with, with the Christian faith, then?

S: I don’t think I take issue- that’s putting it far too strongly. I think I simply diverge slightly with any specific dogma.

ID: But where do you diverge?

S: I think it’s mostly to do with the specificity. Christianity really makes this argument for a very specific, exact reality- and my experience has deviated substantially from that. So I think it’s in the insistence that their branch of the religion is right, and everyone else- often even other Christians- is wrong and hell bound, that I have trouble with. I’m not, really not, arguing against Christianity or even religion in general- I consider myself a very morally grounded and spiritual person, and I owe that in large part to my upbringing.

Religion and, perhaps more importantly, the public servitude and social cohesion at the heart of virtually all religions, is good. I think, to answer Ayn Rand, man does need values. And I think religion is often the source for imbuing future generations with values.

It’s a spiritual connection, often found in religion but sometimes elsewhere, a connection to other people and, really, beyond that to existence as a whole, that’s important. I think it takes us beyond simple concepts of what’s nice or even what’s socially useful, to a place where our decisions are based on how we should act. If it’s religion that gets you there, if it’s an atheistic anarchy- I think the destination can be as important as the path. But I think it's a journey we all take alone, and though we often find ourselves with companions along the way, it's most important that we're all moving towards those same harmonious goals.

We’ll be trying to bring you a new section of the interview every Monday. Some of the questions have already been prepared by the interviewer, but to ask Superman a question, leave a comment or send an email to DeathofSuperman@gmail.com.

Superman Returns

ID: I want to take a break from the heavy stuff. I want to talk about Bryan Singer

S: Oh Lord

ID: Funny choice of words.

S: . Look. I'm not the messiah. I have no pretensions to godhood, and when I signed off on Singer's biopic, with the proceeds purportedly going to charity, I had no idea the turns it would take. Obviously, there were certain things that I shared with them, and other things, like the romance between Lois and I, that were based on rumors and used artistic license to craft what I imagine they assumed would be a more engaging story.

ID: So you’re saying you never left Lois heavy with your bastard (or worse, left her to “deal” with it)?

S: Do you think it’s even possible I’d have an illegitimate son? My own father would have put a shotgun to my head if that happened- besides which, obviously, Lois and I are actually married, and have no children. And I am firmly against abortion.

ID: Whoa.

S: That seems like a revelation to you, and it’s something I’ve tried to keep to myself, but it comes with the super senses. I can hear a fetus- the heartbeat, sounds of its organs, even the noise it makes as its first cells divide. I don't know if that's when life begins or not, and I'm not sure if that makes me anti-choice- it’s an argument I’ve half-had with my wife- but I have trouble saying a woman should be forced to incubate a child she never intended to carry, too. Frankly, it’s a decision I’m thankful isn’t mine to make.

ID: Hmm. Okay, let’s back up a little bit. How did you feel when you heard the Superman Charity Movie Project, as it was called then by Warner Bros., was going to be headed by Bryan Singer?

S: Singer’s a really excellent director. He’s good at taking very cerebral, complicated and complex stories and ideas and blending them with action into a cogent whole that’s satisfying over a 2-hour span.

ID: So there wasn't any trepidation that he would use the movie as a commentary on the gay experience in America, in much the same way he did in the X-Men films.

S: You know, I never really thought about it like that. I guess he did in certain scenes underscore the mutant conflict in such a way to draw parallels to homosexuality, but it never really felt burdensome

ID: Except maybe in that Iceman scene.

S: Yeah, maybe then.

ID: So you weren’t troubled when you heard rumors Singer had an agenda with the movie, that he was perhaps going out of his way to find a gay Superman who would then come out during publicity for the film.

S: You know, I wasn’t, really. I think, when I was younger, fresh out of school, still uncertain about myself and untested, and still largely ignorant of what being a homosexual was, I think it might have bothered me, that people might have inferred that I was gay, or assumed that I was part of pushing a homosexual agenda. But I’m to a point in my life now where I don’t care. In fact, if I could lend some of my, uh,

ID: Credibility

S: right, to the idea of homosexual rights, then that would be a positive thing.

The only uncomfortable part would be that I'd be pushed to answer whether or not I was a homosexual, which is something I don't want to do, because the denial assumes there’s something wrong with being gay; I’m comfortable enough with myself and my sexuality that I don’t care what people whisper behind my back, but there are people, here and abroad, who would view me differently, might even be more reluctant to accept my help. But as far as personally, anyone who might decide to treat me differently because of a perceived flaw- particularly where the flaw was in their thinking and not in mine or anyone else’s lifestyle- I just don’t have time to concern myself with that kind of person.

And, I mean, Lois has a way of reassuring me, and I don’t just mean that in a dirty kind of way, but she’s just, anything that’s bothering me, she can make it all okay.

ID: I have to ask: what was with the Kryptonite island?

S: You know, what’s funny is the original script for the movie was darker. I’ve read parts of it, particularly the heroic moments, and it featured Luthor and a robotic menace which was based pretty faithfully on something he actually did, and he got a court order banning them from using it. I mean, his legal team tied up a dozen different drafts of the film, to the point where I think they just gave up, and went for something a little bit silly, because they figured they could sell that without Luthor raising a stink. Of course, his final lawsuit was simply for points on the gross. The ending amount that went to charity was a few hundred thousand dollars; Bruce ribbed me that I’d let them violate my legacy for the amount he weekly writes a check for for combating AIDS in Africa. And it wasn’t actually Hollywood accounting this time; the FX budget was enormous, and Luthor cost them a good chunk with all his legal challenges. And, you know, people just didn’t see it like Warner thought they might.

ID: But what about the... undertones of the film?

S: I’ll say this again, once more, for the record: I have no overarching messiah complex. I want to help people, I believe, with my abilities, I have a responsibility to help people- I believe that it's the purpose for which I was brought to this planet.

ID: So you believe in fate?

S: I believe in order. I'm not certain enough of what that order's purpose is- even if there's any kind of consciousness behind the organization of things- but I've seen enough of the Universe to say that entropy isn't the only force at work in shaping things. There's some meaning out there, even if you sometimes have to get out there and make it.

ID: But isn't it's true that you've been the center of your own religious tradition.

S: There was a cult that emerged around the time of my “death” fighting Doomsday, but I certainly never cultivated it, never encouraged it- in fact, at every opportunity, I've encouraged people not to follow it as a religion. Religion is something bigger than me, bigger than the things even I do. Some days I struggle to be a good husband and man- I'm just not up to the task of being someone's God.

We’ll be trying to bring you a new section of the interview every Monday. Some of the questions have already been prepared by the interviewer, but to ask Superman a question, leave a comment or send an email to DeathofSuperman@gmail.com.